The Rotarua Thermal Mud (aka Magic Mud) came to my rescue (again!) this week – I’ve discussed before how it’s like a piece of awesome in liquid/paste/cream/whatever form (as recently as just over a month ago, actually!), and following this week’s training (particularly the resistance training on the stances), my knee was feeling a bit sore and inflamed. So, as per the usual, I slapped on plenty of mud and gave it a good rub in while watching a classy episode of Thundercats in bed, tried my best to relax my muscles and not sleep in a weird position, and sure enough, it was right as rain the next day.

When I finish this tube of it, I’m definitely going to grab some more (pretty sure Wifey’s found an online store that sells it) – I swear by the stuff, it always works a treat.

Although it might have been the combination of a double-awesome – Thundercats + Magic Mud. Sounds very scientific to me.

Being the clever person I am, I was running around most of this afternoon in the office attending to stuff; when I came back to my desk towards the end of the day, I heard the familiar clickity-clack my knee makes when the spring’s munted… and sure enough, my hunch was right – I’ve mangled my prosthetic knee again 😛

This is an ongoing thing for me, but thankfully it’s not too difficult to fix, as the knee unit I have can get serviced locally. For those interested, I’m expecting something similar to this when I drop in next week to have it looked at:

That’s a shot of one of the best mangled springs I’ve managed to accomplish over the years – on the right is what the great big spring inside my knee is supposed to look like; the right is what I’d managed to do. My technician’s normally just as amused as I am when it comes to checking out the damage done by my general use of my leg, so hopefully I’ll be able to take another happy snap to share next week, though this time it’ll be with a phone camera with a significantly higher resolution than my old VGA one from a few years back 😉

The bummer is that I was planning on going to two classes next week, but with my leg munted, it’ll be a no-go – with the knee this buggered, it’s prone to locking up and causing me to randomly fall over more often than usual, which is dangerous in class. Instead, I’ll do some extra weight sessions with an emphasis on bench work next week, and I’m confident I’ll have everything all fixed up in time for class later on next week!

So, looks like there was another good reason to hold off on training last night, as my knee started playing up again (not my fake one, the real one :P). My knee typically gives me some trouble from time to time due to the extra work it has to do in supporting my body, and I think getting up after all the breakfalls last week pushed it a little further than usual. So, I thought I’d share a secret that may be a load of hogwash, but it seems to work a charm for me.

When Wifey and I were honeymooning in New Zealand a few years back, we came across this Deep Heat kinda stuff – it’s called “Therapeutic Mud” or something like that, smells a bit like Deep Heat, but apparently uses the thermal mud from Rotorua in the mix. We picked some up while we were over there as Wifey had mangled her ankles from all the walking around we were doing (though it probably didn’t help that she was wearing boots with massive heels on them from time to time if I remember correctly ;)), and the stuff worked extremely well. So, a while back I started using the mud on sore muscles – one time after a particularly heavy weights session both my arms seized up overnight and I couldn’t bend them from the elbow. Added some mud, and in a few days they were right as rain, and in the interim it took away the immediate pain I was getting from them. I’ve also noticed it has a beneficial effect on my knee when it gets a bit achy – sometimes I’ll do it as a precaution after a heavy training session, and sometimes I do it if there’s some general aching (like last night). To be honest, I really should have used some after the breakfall training last week as a preventative act, but was feeling lazy when I got home and didn’t. Hopefully I’ll remember to do the right thing next time 😛

I’ve only ever found it in NZ, and when my folks went there in 2007 (or was it last year?), we had them bring back a couple of tubes of the stuff for us. If people are genuinely interested, I’ll take a photo of it and post some details. Like I said, it may be all in my head, but I’ve found it does wonders for me, much better than actual Deep Heat or some of the other anti-inflammatory gels I’ve used in the past.

I should also start making regular trips to the physio to try and keep the knee in good order – I remember when I first started having knee troubles back in 2004 after I fell down the stairs in our townhouse that the improvement was huge after I saw a physio who used a combination of acupuncture and ultrasound (I think it was ultra sound, my memory’s hazy :P) on my knee. Ah well, I’m sure one day I’ll get off my behind and start 🙂

Hmmm, looks like I’m getting the hang of this MySpace thing – kudos to Pru and co. at We Grow Up and to Madman’s Anime Snacktime 🙂

Well, in an update to training stuff, true to form Hamez and I ended up doing some light sparring last night, and I had a chat to my father-in-law about my knee. I was doing my stretches Friday last week (I normally go through all my leg stretches twice a week outside of karate to encourage my body to increase my flexibility), and I pushed my leg a little too far – my knee made a little ‘pop’ noise (not uncommon – only having one knee means it gets worked on pretty hard) and it’s been a little sore since then. Last time I mangled my knee was back in 2004 when I fell down the last few stairs at the place wifey and I were renting at that time – broke my little toe, and compensating for that mangled my knee (not to worry though – I saw a physio who fixed my knee up).

So, obviously I wanted to fix up my current issue as quickly as possible, so I actually asked for help 😛 Having experience as a sports/fitness trainer, he said it looked like I’d done a little damage to the knee, but nothing too serious. He’s recommend to keep the pressure off the knee as much as possible, so I’m sporting a knee brace for the next few days, and I’ll take some anti-inflammatories once a day and ice the knee up twice a day for 20 minutes at a time.

Since I’ve only got one knee, I figure I’ve got to take care of it, so I’ll be following the advice to the letter and I’ll see how its going next week. If I continue to not be slack, I’ll post how I go then.

About me

Gisoku Budo is a martial arts blog with a twist - having lost my left leg above the knee as a child and growing up as an amputee, I've always challenged myself, and so this blog is a record of my martial arts journey.